“I know him very well. He should face the charges like a man should,” Remulla said. “He should take it with more dignity.”
Romualdez was charged with plunder last Monday, accused of amassing P7.4 billion in ill-gotten wealth from infrastructure projects from 2022 to 2025 when he was Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The complaint also named fugitive former party-list lawmaker Zaldy Co, a member of Romualdez’s household staff, and the president of a currency trading firm, accusing them of conspiring in transactions involving the alleged ill-gotten wealth.
Romualdez has repeatedly denied any involvement amid the allegations and his labeling as one of the “masterminds” of the multibillion-peso flood control scheme, claiming he has been made the government’s “scapegoat.”
Remulla, however, maintained the cases against the former speaker were based strictly on evidence and were free of bias.
He said he was “not happy” with the accused’s request to remain confined in a private hospital to undergo treatment for his supposed illnesses.
Remulla said “a public hospital was the right place” to hold Romualdez as all detainees should be treated equally.
He pointed out that there were some people imprisoned in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology who were “worse off” than Romualdez.
“That’s the reason there’s no more special jail in Crame; we made sure that it was taken down. That is what we really wanted to happen, that justice is equal for the rich and the poor,” Remulla said in a press briefing.
PGH check set
On Friday, the Sandiganbayan Third Division ordered Romualdez to undergo a medical examination at the public Philippine General Hospital to assess the concerns raised by Romualdez’s private doctors at Cardinal Santos Medical Center, where he has been confined since 7 September.
The anti-graft court will use the findings to determine whether to grant Romualdez’s pending motion for continued hospital confinement.
On the day that he was arrested, Romualdez’s camp submitted an urgent manifestation and motion for his confinement at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City.
In Friday’s proceedings, the Cardinal Santos doctors told the anti-graft court that Romualdez was suffering from numerous medical conditions, particularly affecting his cardiovascular health and mental well-being.
The Third Division said that it had “deemed it proper to direct an independent examination of accused Romualdez” to properly “verify” the findings of doctors at Cardinal Santos Medical Center and whether his continued confinement was a “necessity.”
